The dao of we

The cash-burning office-share outfit – now “The We Company” – wants to “elevate the world’s consciousness.” SoftBank is investing $2 bln more, some at a notional $47 bln valuation. But that’s far less than mooted. Broadening its ambitions as backers shrink theirs is risky.

Context News

WeWork said on Jan. 8 it had raised $2 billion more in investment from SoftBank, adding to $4 billion committed in the second half of 2018. The Financial Times reported that SoftBank had previously discussed investing up to an additional $16 billion, but those numbers were scaled back dramatically.

The package of investments means the Japanese firm will provide $5 billion of new capital to the shared-office provider and buy $1 billion of shares from investors and employees. Together with earlier funding, this will bring SoftBank’s investment in WeWork to more than $10 billion. The latest slug of new money values the company at $47 billion, while the secondary investments are pegged at a valuation of $20 billion. The funds do not include any money from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

WeWork also said it would now call itself The We Company, consisting of WeWork, the office rental unit, WeLive, its residential division, and WeGrow, containing an elementary school and a coding academy, whose mission is to “unleash every human’s superpowers.”

Co-founder Adam Neumann said in a blog post that “The We Company’s guiding mission will be to elevate the world’s consciousness.”